Weekend Wrap

And what a weekend it was...  Your humble correspondent will soon have his name engraved on the prestigious Roy Benjamin Cup, though I was disappointed that I can't take it home and abuse it for the next year.  But that's probably not what you came here to read about....

There Is Nothing Like a Dame - It wasn't exactly competitive, but little doubt that the best player won:

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — Laura Davies immediately recognized the significance of having her name inscribed on the first U.S. Senior Women's Open trophy. 

It might be a long time before anyone secures the title as emphatically as Davies did.

Davies went virtually unchallenged in Sunday's final round of the inaugural USGA championship for women 50 and older, claiming the title by 10 strokes over Juli Inkster. 

"It's great seeing this (trophy) paraded down for the very first time and I get my name on it first, you know?" Davies said. "This championship will be played for many years and there will only be one first winner — obviously a proud moment for me to win that."

The appeal for me was the venue, as most of these gals hadn't played competitively in quite some time.  

The weekly Tour Confidential panel surprisingly had a moment for this event, after their deeper dive into all things Carnoustie:

5. Laura Davies cruised in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open, finishing 16 under and beating runner-up Juli Inkster (four under) by 10. Only two other players finished under par, and everyone outside of the top 20 was 12 over or worse. The average score for the week was 79. Davies's domination and the parity of scores begs the question, does the USGA have a problem on its hands when it comes to this tournament? Are there only a handful of players who can actually win it?

Zak: Um, hell no. The problem with this tournament was that it was broadcast for a total of four hours this week. There is absolutely no problem with the generic truth that they hosted a national championship about 40 years after they first should have. They should be applauded, regardless of what Davies or the rest of the field shot.

Yup.  Limiting coverage to the weekend denied us any look at the front nine of Chicago Golf Club, which of course was the point (reducing their costs of covering an event whose audience would be....err....let's go with limited).

Passov: The inaugural Senior Women's Open reminded me a lot of the inaugural Senior Men's Open, in 1980, which was limited to players 55 and over. Roberto DeVicenzo won with one over, but there weren't a lot of folks who played well or came close — partly because many of them had played little competitive golf in years, especially on the caliber of test that Winged Foot (East) presented. Give this new event some time and you'll see much more competition and competitive scores.

On the one hand, that comparison is quite apt.  On the other, I don't see things as optimistically as Joe.  The USGA quickly reduced the eligibility age to 50 to allow the 51-year old Arnold Palmer to play, but the ladies don't have an Arnie....  

It would be nice to think that in future years the ladies would show up more battle-tested, but where are they gonna play?

Did you see the tees Laura used when hitting driver?  Tricked ya, she pounds the turf and tees it up thoroughly old school.... Before they had actual cups, they used to grad a handful of sand from the hole and perch their gutta percha on that....  

He's Got The Stones for It -  Sorry, kids, but we'll all have to learn a new name:

GULLANE, Scotland (AP) — Brandon Stone sank to his haunches and dropped his putter in despair after narrowly missing out on becoming the first player to shoot a round 

of 59 on the European Tour. 

It wasn't all bad for the South African golfer, though. 

Stone's 10-under 60 secured a four-shot victory at the Scottish Open on Sunday, earning him a third professional title of his career — the first outside his native country — and the bonus prize of a qualifying spot in next week's British Open just up the east coast at Carnoustie. 

He also left the Gullane links with a slight sense of regret.  

Stone's approach to the 18th green skipped on and came to rest about 8 feet from the hole. His caddy hadn't let him look at a scoreboard all day, so it was only as Stone walked toward the green that he was informed he had a birdie putt for a 59.

In light of some of the courses they play, it's quite shocking that no one has broken through sixty on the Euro Tour.  But Stone does seem to be the sort of golf nerd we'll like:

Q. And you have a wedding present now of Hickory Golf Clubs. Is that correct?

BRANDON STONE: I do indeed. I don't think it's going to last until the wedding, though, if I'm brutally honest. I think I'm going to get home; I just had a Southwest green put in my house and probably picked up the purist putter I've ever seen in my entire life. It's probably got about 12 degrees of loft on it, 29 inches, but it just sits so flush. So I'm going to be on that. My fiancée was under no illusions that when she bought them for me that they wouldn't be boxed and wrapped up until the wedding. But hey, what are you going to do? 

Q. How did that come about? What prompted that?

BRANDON STONE: Just drove past the store, if I'm brutally honest. I mean my fiancée is always giving me a little bit of sticks in that she can't buy someone who has everything something. So when we drove past the Hickory store on Monday afternoon, I said, that would be quite cool. So she was like, perfect. So we went and popped in there yesterday afternoon, and obviously I went to college at the University of Texas, and there was just this beautiful set of burnt orange, untreated leather-gripped Hickories, and I was like, bang, go, 400 pounds later, smiling. Been chipping in the garden at the house all week. I think that might have been helping me because that wedge has got zero bounce on it, so the moment you get a little bit of bounce you feel like you can conquer the world.

It was a hickory-infused week at Gullane...  They had a closest to the pin contest early in the week:

Hickory shafts, gutta percha golf balls.... and ProTracer?  Worlds colliding, but good fun.

That Patrick Reed offering got expensive for the Masters champion:

But it was more than scoring that drew the Masters champion to venture just a block away from Gullane Golf Club’s 18th green and plunk down significant pounds on two sets of playable hickories, one for his own fun and another for brother-in-law Kessler

Karain.

“I’d never hit hickory clubs before or an old golf ball like that,” said Reed, who has experimented with hitting persimmons until cracking a few with modern golf balls. “I finally found a spot that actually had them, so I got a set and I’m excited to take them home.” 

The spot in question is Boris Lietzow’s resurrected Jack White shop specializing in restored, playable hickories and no shortage of insights from the 46-year-old who handles all of the restoring and repairing himself. 

Lietzow’s passion for White’s clubs from the early 20th century is well known in the growing world of hickory golf where he serves Chief Executive of the World Hickory Open. While the White legacy of clubmaking in Gullane is a focus –White was a club supplier to Bobby Jones — Lietzow is also one of the world’s foremost experts on the industry of club making that once dominated this region.

I know where I'm going next time I'm in East Lothian, which is long overdue.

 And this:

Boris Lietzow at work.

Lastly, it's hard to know what to make of this story involving Ian Poulter:

A Gullane man named Quintin Jardine, who volunteered at this week's European Tour event, penned a post on his personal blog panning Poulter's behavior and sharing a letter

he wrote to the tournament director. Titled "Ian Poulter is an arsehole," Jardine claims the tour pro verbally "abused" and displayed "aggression" at him after he informed Poulter his tee shot on the first hole had disappeared into a bush. 

Jardine also says Poulter was upset that Jardine didn't walk into the bush because if he stepped on the ball as a marshal, Poulter would be entitled to a free drop. Whereas if Poulter stepped on his ball, he'd be penalized. Here's how Jardine ended his letter:

My first inclination was to do no more that slaughter Mr Poulter on my blog and Facebook page, but now I feel that I have a duty on behalf of all the other volunteers to bring the incident to the Tour’s attention," Jardine wrote. "I’m not asking for him to be fined, because I don’t see the point of that. However I would like him to be reminded that even though most of the world knows you’re an arsehole, there’s no need to go proving it to the rest. I will take his apology as read, but if he wants to make it in person, I’m not hard to find in Gullane.

Let's see... do I take an unknown marshal's word over an established Tour player's?  But the best part is that the Tour player defends himself by noting that it's been years since he's beaten his wife:

Yeah, that's the ticket....

The Deere - I respect my readers so, that I'll not even pretend to care....  You're on your own with this one.

Open Week - I have some bad news for you, that we'll get to in a bit....  But first, let's talk about the week that is upon us.  In watching the golf from Gullane, we were treated to some aerial views of Carnoustie, and the theme for the week is Earth tones....  By all accounts it's a s baked out as we've seen an Open in a while.

Bob Harig watched Tiger play an abbreviated practice round, and these bits are getting a lot of press:

"I have missed not playing The Open in a while because this is our oldest tournament," Woods said. "And then coming here to Carnoustie, it is special. This is my fourth time

playing it as a tournament. From my first time coming here as an amateur to being back now, it's just amazing how this course doesn't change. It is right in front of you. It's hard. It's probably the most difficult one we play in the whole rotation." 

The course is already rife with examples of players finding the ball going extraordinary distances, whether it be due to the wind or the firm and fast conditions. For example, Woods hit a 7-iron off the No. 4 tee to position himself short of bunkers; it went 215 yards. His normal distance with that club is 180. 

"Right now the fairways are faster than the greens," he said. "I am sure they will probably speed the greens up a touch, but I'm sure this will be one of those weeks where the fairways are a little quicker than the greens."

 That TC panel took this on, though the question seems a bit on the obvious side:

1. The conditions of Carnoustie have become one of the early storylines of the British Open, as it's among the many Scottish courses affected by an usually warm summer. "Carnoustie is baked out but greens are pure," tweeted Brandt Snedeker, who isn't in the top 100 in driving distance, yet hit a 427-yard drive during a practice round. "Never seen an Open this firm." Does this mean bombers will have a huge advantage, or does it mean they'll have less of an edge since, due to space, they might not be able to hit the big stick everywhere?

Sean Zak: It means the ball is going to run, run, run for everyone. Players will have to be dialed in to where they're landing approach shots, and whoever putts best when they get there will win. In other words, this is a different type of golf, and the best golfer will win, regardless of how far they drive it.

Joe Passov: Winds look average for the week and coming from the "normal" direction for this time of year, so the baked fairways will definitely not favor the big hitters. Simply too many nasty bunkers for the ball to chase into and that's the one place you can't go. Conservative plays and course management will rule this week.

Everyone and their cousin are comparing this to Hoylake '06, when Tiger famously hit one driver the entire week.  Makes it wide open, with the possibility of  devolving into a putting contest.

This guy might not hit even that many drivers:

Self-awareness has not been Phil Mickelson’s strong suit of late, but The Forecaddie had

to chuckle at Lefty’s repeated references to having a big advantage when he doesn’t have to hit driver. 

Even though Mickelson’s driving has been better in 2018 — it couldn’t get much worse — do not expect Mickelson to carry the big stick at Carnoustie. 

“I’m either going to carry a driver or that hot 3-wood, but there’s only two or three holes — there’s actually only two holes I plan on using it, both par 5s,” he told The Man Out Front after his Carnoustie scouting trip. 

Mickelson’s plans to lean heavily on “a low 1-iron” he used at the Scottish Open to take advantage of links conditions. 

“I would say that when it’s windy, it really is an advantage for me because drivers are not necessary,” he said in one of many references to the confidence he gets from relying on his knock-down stingers.

The last time I remember Phil playing with no driver was Torrey Pines in '08, and he couldn't find a fairway without a compass (the reader may insert his or her own DeChambeau joke here).   Phil being Phil, I would think these conditions call for at least two drivers.

Back to the TC gang for their thoughts on Tiger:

Zak: Stinger, fairway. Stinger, fairway. Stinger, fairway. He's a ridiculous ball-striker and if he putts like an average guy, he'll be in the mix. Just keep those damn tee balls near the ground.

Passov: Tiger knows how to play the kind of golf called for this week better than anyone — just witness, as Mr. Sens referenced, his play at Hoylake in 2006. Virtually all the trouble at Carnoustie is getting to the greens, not on them. I think Tiger will enjoy success on these greens and will contend.

Yes, but I'd like him more if the wind was howling.  With modest winds it ain't exactly rocket science as to how to get around a hot links course, as they've all seen the Hoylake video.  I'm thinking he'll need to have a good putting week, and all season long he's been flummoxed by slower greens..... 

And the winner is....  Here are their picks:

Zak: Branden Grace wins one for South Africa at 12 under. 

Bamberger: Brandt Snedeker. Four under. 

Ritter: Jon Rahm gets Europe on the board and further boosts the Ryder Cup intrigue, 10 under. 

Sens: Dustin Justin. Eight under. 

Passov: Tommy Fleetwood, final-round 63, for an 11-under total, 273.

Branden Grace seems like so three years ago.... I must admit, the Rahm pick seems awfully curious when the driver is his biggest weapon.  

For those enamored of train wrecks, Josh Sens has your worst Open collapses of all time.  Of course that French guy figures prominently, though I actually think this one was the more significant:

ADAM SCOTT

Year: 2012

Venue: Royal Lytham

Great Scott? More like a sub-par Aussie, who had a four-shot lead with four to play but went on to make four bogeys in four different fashions. Let us count the ways: The first resulted from an errant approach into a green-side bunker; the second from a three-putt; the third from a six-iron into the fescue; the fourth from a 3-wood into a fairway bunker. Meanwhile, up ahead, Ernie Els was banking birdies. On the 18th hole, Scott faced a 7-footer to force a playoff, but his putt strayed left. His body sagged. "Wow!" Scott mouthed. You can say that again.

First and foremost, he was the far better player than Van de Velde, and it was a slow-motion train wreck.  Also, we get to dump on Stevie, who allowed Scott to hit 3-wood off the final tee.  If you know Lytham, it's befuddling, since all it accomplished was to bring the bunkers into play.  It's a tee shot where either driver to carry the bunkers or iron to stay short is defensible, but 3-wood is what you hit if you want to avoid the playoff, on the losing side.

Joel Beall digs deeper, ironically in a story about a different Argentine, for this more significant collapse:

There is a golf course in Argentina’s Mendoza province, tucked away in the countryside’s vineyards and olive orchards, that boasts a replica of Carnoustie’s 17th hole. The Scottish salvo resides in South America thanks to José Jurado, although it’s unlikely he would see it as such. Known as the “Godfather of Argentinean Golf,” Jurado was leading the 1931 Open Championship before his drive found the Barry Burn on the 17th. He doubled the hole and bogeyed the 18th, losing the title to Tommy Armour by a stroke. “Jurado, a dazed man, went through the crowd and into the room reserved for the players behind the first tee,” The Scotsman reported, “and broke down completely and cried like a child.” Juardo would refer to that Open as "painful" and "my nightmare."

Hey, I cry like a child every time I make a double...

Today in Agenda Journalism - The press isn't even pretending anymore, as this lengthy item on Trump Turnberry makes ever so clear:

This is the first edition of a weekly column in which I hope to expose, explore, and analyze the financial activity of our President and his associates—including his family,

his political appointees, and business partners—and make the case for greater transparency. We know, of course, that the Trump Organization has worked with some truly questionable business associates, that it has run afoul of anti-money-laundering laws, and that its most high-profile business expansion—a line of three- and four-star hotels—has all but collapsed. But, for all the coverage of Trump’s finances, there is so much we just don’t know. And Trump Turnberry offers a tantalizing and maddeningly incomplete glimpse into the ways in which our President makes and spends money.

Note that he ledes with "expose", regardless of how maddeningly incomplete his knowledge is.  I guess they're following the Queen's rules, Sentence first, trial later.

Now the piece is rife with statements such as this:

We know so little about the internal finances of the Trump Organization’s activities elsewhere that it is hard to understand where all of the money spent on Turnberry came from.

A lesser man might be deterred by that lack of knowledge, but we're not so lucky here.

And we have  yet another candidate to worst appeal to authority:

In congressional testimony, Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Christopher Steele to report out the document that became known as the Steele dossier, wondered aloud if the money really was Trump’s. If so, why would he have spent it in this location and not elsewhere? (A recent report by R&A, the world’s leading golf organization, shows that there is far more opportunity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America—where golf is growing quickly—than in Scotland, the country most oversupplied with courses, clubs, and resorts.)

In English, idle musings from the guy that financed the discredited dossier, do tell....  As for that bit about golf being overbuilt in Scotland, perhaps...  But it could be viewed as a trophy property in the Open Rota, and those aren't to be found in Bangladesh.

But wait for it, you know there have to be Russians under the bed:

Instead, Trump turned to a new source of other people’s money. He did a series of deals in Toronto, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Azerbaijan, and Georgia with businesspeople from the former Soviet Union who were unlikely to pass any sort of rigorous due-diligence review by pension funds and other institutional investors. (Just this week, the Financial Times published a remarkably deep dive into the questionable financing of Trump’s Toronto property.) He also made deals in India, Indonesia, and Vancouver, Canada, with figures who have been convicted or investigated for criminal wrongdoing and abuse of political power.

A pox on all these folks...  I can believe anything about Trump, I just can't believe anything these people tell me.  I grew up with David Remnick, who is a smart guy in a certain sense, but this is just agenda journalism.  Stick to poetry and cartoons, Davis.

That Bad News -  Scotland and Ireland are having a hot dry summer, with course achieving peak linksyness.  Naturally, your humble correspondent is headed to..... France.  Where they'll be full of themselves over the World Cup, though it's not a people that are known to Lord it over Yanks....  I kid.

Worst of all, we leave Thursday night, meaning you'll have to get through the Open Championship mostly without me.  More importantly, I don't like my chances of seeing much of The Open, as we'll be drinking way too much wine in the Loire Valley those days.

At this juncture, I am undecided as to whether I'll tote the laptop and try to blog the trip.  After the Loire, we'll be on a barge meandering the River Saône, and they've not promised more than 3G Internet to us.  Even that might not be available,at some moorings, so it may not be worth the lugging.  I'll be here through the week and try to let you know whether to check i during our journey.